Dancing with Shakira AUNTY – Part 1

Singapore has this interesting concept of community clubs. From my experience of living in Mumbai, I knew a real club membership was only for the elite people and the rest were the kind of clubs that would organize Sarvajanik Ganesh Mahotsave or Shirdi yatra. However, as Singapore has been proving its capabilities of giving new definitions to old terms, it has redefined the concept of clubs for me. Each district has a couple of community clubs which has activities for every age groups and the membership doesn’t really cost a bomb. So I headed to the nearby community club one of the weekends to find out sports activities if any available. With the regular man’s ego of not wanting to ask for help, I spent a good half an hour reading through the notice boards to find out what this club was upto. Well at the end I was sure there weren’t any sports activities happening in this club, but most activities were like hobby classes for children. One of them that caught my eye was “Salsa class” for adults. I walk into the reception to first check about the sports, and was told that the sports club is a separate building 2 blocks away. I could had saved the half an hour if I inquired first, but I also came to know of the salsa class. She suggested that the class starts the same day evening, and I can come 15 mins before to talk to the instructor before joining.



I had realized, Singapore usually celebrated “shorts days” on weekends. I am not kidding, the whole country is like wearing shorts, across age groups and genders. Contrary to experience of going to a mall in Mumbai on a weekend in shorts, where I feel alienated among over dressed people who come to the supper market with makeup on to buy grocery, I used to feel in place when I walked into a mall in Singapore in my shorts. Well, the experience was only till I reached the dance class.

First step – “I think I am at the right place”. I could hear Latin American music going on and the instructor calling out 1 – 2 – 3 - 4.. The place looked huge with huge glass walls but they were not dancing salsa. Then I realized, I was before time and this was the bachata-tango batch going on. This short Chinese guy wearing a cap was the instructor.

Second step – “Is there a dress code?”. As I walked into the class I realized this crowd was not celebrating the shorts day. Every man was dressed in trousers and shirt with leather shoes. Every woman was dressed in a skirt and top and high heels. I convinced myself by thinking, this must be a dress rehearsal for the batch before some big performance.

Third step – “Is this a senior citizen batch?”. After I had gazed through the over dressed crowed I started looking for familiar faces, I mean, I was trying to find out if there are any Indians in the batch. Well unfortunately most of them were Chinese.. sorry all of them were Chinese. However, a closer look I realized that most of the men were balding from the back of their heads or had grey hair. An even further closer look I realized most of the women had wrinkles on their faces. They showed signs of aging, but still they were all enthu to learn Bachata. Another thing I realized about Chinese people, is that after 20 they directly turn 60. It’s almost impossible to guess the age of a middle aged Chinese man or woman, they have the exact same hair, skin n body structure all through their life till they suddenly start aging at 60. Most of the people in this batch showed signs of aging..

Effectively most of the people in the batch were in couples. Clearly most of the men were not interested, but were dragged by their wife to join them for a salsa batch. I think each couple must have been married for a minimum of 20 years, and the tenure of their marriage was very visible in their dance. Salsa being the intimate form of dancing shows the intimacy level in couples when they are dancing. The stranger couples who just met at the dance class would only be pretending to hold each other and dance with enough space between them for a tree to be planted. The young couples would be hardly dancing, but more interested in the body brushing each other. They enjoy just holding each other tight with no space for air to pass through them. But here I saw the long married couples the ladies held their husbands like they were dancing with a robot and the men held the ladies like they were dancing with a pillar.

Fourth step – “Come join us?”. The Bachata batch just got over and the assistant instructor came upto me. I was a little fumbled and trying to digest all that I had seen. I just asked is this the salsa beginners batch. She said “Yes. You join?” I asked “Any trial?” she again said “You join?” I said “No fees today” she said “OK. Pay next week”. So that was the enrollment process and I was part of the batch

The following part of this blog entry will be posted early next week...

Met new people and instantly became family

I have completed 1 months in Singapore, and effectively the only weekend activity that I did in the whole month is one visit to a dance bar, that too was accidental (Shared the story in the earlier article). So I decided to visit a friend who lives in Jakarta. Considering my current situation of a broke entrepreneur, it was a tough decision to make if it was worth visiting Jakarta for a weekend at a cost of around 300$, or should I stay home and save some money. However, I realized if I haven’t had a decent long conversation with another human being in person in past 4 weeks, and another week like this would drive me crazy. I think more than a decent conversation, I have been longing for the drunk conversations, I have been missing the comment “you are drunk” when I laugh uncontrollably on nothing. So I took the plunge and decided to spend the money and buy air tickets on the cheapest budget airlines. The plan was to fly out on Friday night, spend the weekend at a friend’s place and return on Sunday night. I calculated, and was happy to realize that the air fare was actually cheaper than a Rajdhani train journey.

Just a day before I was to fly out, my friend buzzed me on IM and mentioned, there was some urgent meeting called from head office and he would have to fly to India for two days on Saturday. Now comes the bitter truth of budget airlines – you can’t cancel the tickets and rescheduling is as good as buying new tickets. We didn’t have a choice, but to go ahead with the plan and catch-up for Friday night. He was very sweet to offer me to stay over at his place, while he was not there.

So I get there on Friday night, and he came to pick me up. On the way to his place I realized, he was extra sweet to pick me up in spite of the annoying traffic. I think if I was in his place, I would have had asked my friend to take a cab. Took us around 2 hours to get home which ideally should be around 40 mins drive. I thought to myself, this must be the way Jakarta wanted to welcome me and make me feel at home (in Mumbai).. And actually the truth is that Jakarta is almost same as Mumbai with a little better roads and a lot of smoke. Wait! The smoke is not from the cars, but from people’s lungs. It’s like the whole country smokes!!! Well I couldn’t resist myself light up one. We reached home and sat drinking till 4.00 in the morning. It was not necessarily a drunk conversation, but sure a healthy one. I finally communicated with another human being, which was more than just small talks.. I felt so content!!

With too much of alcohol in the blood streams, and a bad hangover, woke up next morning to realize my friend was packing to leave. So I was trying to convince myself that it was atleast better than spending a lonely weekend in Singapore. My friend had a huge collection of DVDs and a PS2!!! I was game to spend the 2 days at his place.. at home.. watch DVDs.. play a few games.. finish all the beer that he had stocked.. and leave on Sunday night. Before leaving, he just called home one of his Indian friends from the neighbourhood and introduced me to her. I’ll call her ‘S’. ‘S’ was this 101% Mumbaikar, energetic, enthusiastic young lady (married!!) . I was very glad to meet a fellow like-minded mumbaikar!! So she just mentioned, she had plans to meet some of her friends and I could tag along.. However, nothing concrete. So they left, then I went about taking a walk alone around the neighbourhood. The English speaking population of Jakarta is very low, so I had to use my expressive body language to order a burger. I think my sign of a chicken looked like a buffalo to the girl, and got a beef burger instead of a chicken. However, I am person of low expectations in such situations, just had what I got and left.

Spent the afternoon surfing through my friend’s DVD collection, and watching a classic comedy. There was no phone call or replies from either S or some of the other ex-colleagues I knew in Jakarta. I was just getting ready to spend the night at home, when I got a call from S early in the evening. She mentioned, that she was going out “shopping” with 3 other German girl friends of hers and if I had nothing else to do I could join them. So I had to decide between a few slapstick comic movies (if I were lucky they might just have some nude scenes in it) or an evening with 4 girls out shopping. Well how bad or boring could it be to accompany 4 girls shopping, sure it would be a new experience to meet German girls, and anyways the nude scenes in the movie were uncertain.

So here I am, with an energetic mumbaikar in the cab, on the way to a shopping mall to meet her friends. I get there and realize only one of them is her friend and the other two are the friend’s friend. What the heck! They are all new faces to me, I didn’t care to do a background check. I’ll call the German friend “A”. If S was energetic then A=SX2. Within 30 seconds of the conversation, she had already invited me to join her with her friends for a party night. I don’t know if I come across as a cool guy, or a harmless guy or what, but I never expected to be accepted in a group so easily. So effectively my friend introduced me to S, then S introduced me to A, then A suggested I join her friends for a party the same night. I don’t really think I could come across like a cool or a harmless guy, surely not in 30 seconds of meeting a person. I realize that these people are friendly like no other people I have met in life. No judgments, about how I look, how I would behave, what I would say or the worst .. would I misbehave or get drunk.. never mind.. I am just accepted in the group! WOW!

So I get home, excited and singing to myself “I got a feeling… that tonight gonna be a good night…. Wooo hooo!!”. In a while ‘A’ comes home with 4 of her friends. I was a little surprised to see her friends along, as wasn’t expected. Also, I am really not the owner of the house to host a party for people. However, we ended-up finished half a bottle of my friends collection of alcohol and hit out to the party. So here I am, with 4 unknown people but very friendly, heading to a pub called “Blow Fish” and really looking forward to rock the night.


“Blow Fish” was a regular high end pub like we see in Mumbai, but with the best music I have heard in life. The whole night they played great hip hop, and then gradually grew into trance. I thought the European girls would be sophisticated and would have a lot of air around her. But herself and the Indonesian guys were the most down to earth, and also crazy party animals. We danced like there was no tomorrow and this is the last party of our life. People who have seen me dancing, know I can get crazy, but guys trust me.. this girl was unbeatable! I finally accepted defeat at around 3.30 in the morning when I had to find a place to sit and she continued to find places to dance on a crowded dance floor. We had our small jokes on couples making out or girls in super short dresses, and I felt like I was with people I have known for years.

This is not the end. Next day I get a message from “A” and “S” to join them for lunch. When I met them, they met me like we are the best buddies with a tight hug, and we couldn’t help but just laugh without a joke, after last night’s crazy dancing. We also meet the other two German girls for lunch. It was the best Indian food I have had overseas, I couldn’t stop licking my fingers after finishing the tandoori chicken. And guess what! The German girls could eat it as much in an Indian way. I accompanied them for a little more shopping and then we headed home. While parting ways, I actually felt that I was leaving close friends and going away.. the same way I felt when I parted from my friends in Mumbai. Never knew people could bring that feeling into me within 48 hours of meeting them.

So I pack in time and rush to the airport.. thinking to myself “Now I am prepared to spend another 4 weeks of lonely and tough life in Singapore”. But the bigger thought was “Now I have a family in Jakarta and its only 90 mins away from Singapore”. In this weekend, I haven’t made friends but I think I just joined a family.